It's usually there somewhere in the fine print: don't pay this bill, and we could take you to court. If you pay the bill, you're fine.
If you fall behind, a trip to court could be in the future. And that could mean you, without a lawyer, facing a business with some money to spend on a good lawyer.
A recent study by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that activity in civil courts is generally down in recent years; down except for cases of people sued by debt collectors. The people sued lose about 80% of the time.
Erika Rickard's job at Pew is to try to modernize the legal system. She joins us with an overview of the situation in debt cases.